Chapter 19: Malice (4)

Above all, in order to…

“May, I should go to—”

[Emerald, what’s happening all of a sudden? Why is there a beacon on the outskirts of the city…]

“Something’s strange.

There should be a beacon to detect the monster’s despair signal—”

There isn’t one.

The source contained in the beacon is, after all, the hope of magical girls.

When a magical girl approaches nearby, it resonates and can easily tell where she is, but there was no such beacon in this city.

….The siren definitely rang whenever a monster appeared.

How could they know that a monster had invaded and sound the alarm without a beacon?

The questions that came to mind began to grow.

No matter how good her detection ability was, it wasn’t enough to detect the entire city.

To detect, she had to be transformed, and there was no way she could transform all day.

The association.

[This city’s association, right? I’ll show you around!]

There were more than one or two suspicious points.

The central government must have provided various support to the outskirts to defend against monster invasions.

But they didn’t even have the most basic beacons ready.

‘Even in a rural village with less than 100 people, they install at least one signal…

Corruption, or something else.

In the past, when Apocalypse destroyed the world, such things often happened.

I had never actually seen or experienced it, and I only learned about it through news.

‘If the upper echelons of this city really didn’t install a signal, then the safety of the people living here can never be guaranteed.

If you ask if the presence of a signal prevented monsters from invading, that wasn’t the case, but at least it would have given the citizens time to evacuate to a shelter.

But they didn’t even install something so simple?

Anger boiled inside me.

At first, I had only visited the city to find Apocalypse, but I never thought that the city would harbor such darkness.

[The building is huge…]

That’s how I arrived at the association.

Since it was a small city, I thought the size of the association would also be small, but what I saw before my eyes was a large building that was no different from the central association building.

“Hello, what brings you here?”

“…I’d like to see the president.”

“The president? The president’s schedule today is—”

“Schedule? What schedule are you talking about?”

The receptionist’s expression hardened slightly at the nervous words.

There was no way things would go any better if I got on the nerves of the receptionist in front of me.

Phew, let’s take it slow.

Slowly.

“I’m Emerald, a magical girl affiliated with the central government.”

I exhaled slowly, recalling a story I had once heard.

People who were more dangerous than monsters.

They were selfish people who cared only for their own gain, without thinking of others.

“Stealing supplies from the shelter, reducing the number of signals, not replacing the magical girl’s equipment when it got old…”

‘…

“Monsters are scary, but people are scary too.

If only everyone in the world were as kind as Emeralds.”

The senior who had been talking with a pale face took her own life a week later.

The reason given was that she had been criticized by the media for being a ‘magical girl but unable to protect people from monsters!’

That was absolutely not the senior’s fault.

The one who told the senior who had been shouting for more personnel, ‘Since you get overtime pay, it’s okay to work alone, right?’ was none other than the upper echelons of the association.

“You know that centrally affiliated magical girls have the authority to inspect regional associations, right?”

“Oh, I know!”

“Then, would it be better for me to use that authority to call the Central Association Inspection Department, or would it be better for the Association President to cancel his schedule and meet with me?”

“Yes, I’ll contact you right away! Joe, please wait a moment!”

It didn’t seem like a very appealing option since it sounded like a threat, but I had realized long ago that this was a much more effective way to do things.

If it were me in the past, I would have gone around and around and created another victim.

…It was strange that the alarm didn’t sound when the Gamma-class monster appeared.

According to the story, the siren didn’t sound even when the Gamma-class monster invaded the shelter.

It rang when the Beta-class monster first appeared, but when the Gamma-class monster appeared again, the alarm didn’t sound again?

Since the alarm sounds were different depending on the level of the monster in the first place, there was no way people would have mistaken it.

“Yes, yes… I understand. I’ll make sure to convey that. Yes, Association President.”

“What happened?”

The receptionist wiped the cold sweat from her forehead with a pale face as if the call with the Association President was over.

Although I felt a little bad for making things difficult for someone in vain, I steeled myself since it was something I had to do.

“They said they’d be here right now…”

“Okay. I’ll be waiting.”

I took a seat in a nearby chair after seeing the receptionist sighing deeply.

There were too many things I wanted to ask about the current state of this city’s defenses.

Maybe we could talk all day.

[Emerald, look over there.]

“…Huh?”

I waited for the president for a while.

I turned my gaze to May, who was pointing in one direction.

‘Garnet… Peridot… A plaque with the names of the magical girls active here written on it.

In Peridot’s case, she was a magical girl I had quite a personal interest in because she had driven out the Gamma-class monster this time.

The association building is this big, but there are only two magical girls affiliated with it.

Although the number of magical girls affiliated with the central organization was larger than that of the local organizations, this was still too small.

Only two magical girls deployed in a city where monsters appear so frequently?

Even if the invasions were mostly by Alpha or Beta level monsters, two magical girls were too few.

They wouldn’t have touched the budget related to magical girls, right…?

The signal was meant to indicate that a monster had invaded, so let’s say they somehow managed to get past it.

However, the fact that there were so few magical girls compared to the size of the city was absolutely unacceptable.

The absence of magical girls meant that there was no way to defeat the monsters.

‘Apocalypse—no, I was too concerned about Akari…

If I had known this would happen, I would have come to the association first.

At this very moment, the corruption of the association was a greater threat to the safety of the people than Akari before the apocalypse.

[This doesn’t seem like something to be taken lightly, Emerald.]

“Yeah. I thought so too, Mei.”

She had a feeling that something big was going to happen.

That was also due to the extremely vicious selfishness and malice that is unique to humans.

However, that thought did not last long.

Weeeeeeeeeing-!!!!!!

[Warning, warning, Delta-class despair energy. Delta-class monster invasion. Warning, warning—]

I jumped up from my seat at the sound of a siren filling all directions.

Since saving people was a priority over the association president’s work, in a way, it was a natural choice.

I’m afraid of the pure malice of humans.

I gulped while glaring at the soft ice cream in my hand.

‘Can I stop eating this?”

“Sister, is it delicious?”

“Yes… well, it’s delicious.”

I sighed inwardly at the child’s sparkling eyes as she watched me eating the ice cream.

I was stupid for saying I would eat it because I thought it would be a new feeling.

The ice cream, how should I put it, felt much worse than the porridge I used to eat at the hospital.

‘It seems soft, but it sticks to me and melts…!

It was even colder, which made me feel worse.

It might have been better to just eat porridge at the hospital.

At least in the hospital, I could feel somewhat better because of Tamako’s despair.

“Ugh, to me, human despair is candy and ice cream…

Humans, guarantee my monster rights, guarantee it!

Guarantee delicious monster food, not tasteless human food, guarantee it!

“It was delicious.”

“Ah… Sis, you only really ate if you eat all of the corn!”

“…Is that so?”

Please, someone help me.

It was that moment when I desperately prayed inside at the child’s compulsion that wasn’t forced.

Wheeeeeeeeing-!!!!!

“Whoa?!”

Suddenly, a siren started blaring.

It was much more threatening and louder than when I first heard it.